The current Heshen and Zhongtang were like the River God holding a golden axe in his left hand and a silver axe in his right, and the answer given by the old dog Qianlong surprised Heshen and Zhongtang, the Heshen, as much as a divine being.
"Ha, Heshen, you're treating me like a child?"
The old dog Qianlong, leaning against the soft couch, let out a laugh and raised his hand in a fist, saying with a smile, "Children make choices, but I, I want it all."
Heshen and Zhongtang inwardly scoffed, thinking, 'What the hell are you acting cute for? What time is it, and you still have the mind to act cute? Have you stamped your brain so much that it's got psoriasis?'
After cursing the old dog Qianlong thoroughly in his heart, Heshen and Zhongtang bowed and said obsequiously, "Your Majesty is wise."
The old dog Qianlong snorted and said, "Tell me, what methods are there to continuously obtain wealth, and what methods are there to quickly obtain a sum of wealth?"
Heshen responded with a "yes" and bowed, saying obsequiously, "Replying to Your Majesty, the quickest way to make money is undoubtedly confiscation of property. However, as Your Majesty knows the current situation of our Great Qing court, confiscation is clearly not easy."
The old dog Qianlong snorted and said nothing, quietly waiting for Heshen to continue.
Heshen then continued to bow and say with a fawning smile, "Since confiscation is not feasible, we can still plunder."
The situation had reached this point, and only the old dog Qianlong and Zhongtang were in the Qianlong's sleeping quarters, so there was no need to be secretive. They might as well speak openly.
The old dog Qianlong, however, coldly snorted and retorted, "Plunder? I know plundering brings money quickly, but Heshen, this isn't about plundering tens or hundreds of taels of silver. Can you tell me where I should go to plunder several million taels of silver?"
Heshen gave a sly, fawning smile and said, "Your Majesty, we have no one to plunder here, but we can plunder Joseon."
"Joseon is, after all, a subordinate state that pays tribute to our Great Qing. As long as Your Majesty issues an order, will Joseon dare not give us silver?"
"Besides Joseon, aren't there those Mongolian princes?"
"Oh, my Your Majesty, you are too benevolent. There are so many people in this world, so many subordinate states. Whom can our Great Qing not plunder? If we plunder them, it is their honor."
The old dog Qianlong hummed, pondering whose silver to plunder.
From the current situation, the Mongolian princes were definitely out of the question. It wasn't impossible to plunder them, but wouldn't that affect the entry of the Eight Banners into the Pass to quell the rebellion?
The princes in the west were also definitely out of the question. Their relationship with the Great Qing was not yet at a point where they could be plundered at will.
As for those *** lords and the like in our Great Qing court, or those princes and ministers?
Could those people be plundered at will? They were all relatives of our Eight Banners!
After much thought, the old dog Qianlong finally decided to plunder Joseon directly, as Heshen suggested.
Firstly, there were no kinship ties. Secondly, Joseon was a small country with a sparse population and was militarily even weaker than our Great Qing, so there was nothing to worry about.
The old dog Qianlong had already decided that they didn't need to plunder much from Joseon this time. As long as they could get six, seven, or eight million taels of silver, it would be enough to cover the military expenses for suppressing the rebel Zhu.
Having made up his mind, the old dog Qianlong then asked, "Anything else?"
Heshen bowed and said, "Yes, there is another method, but I dare not speak it."
The old dog Qianlong snorted and said, "You good-for-nothing Heshen, what is there in this world that you dare not do? Forget it, just say it, and I will pardon your offense."
Heshen gave a fawning smile and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, what are you saying? I may be bolder in other matters, but when it comes to important court affairs like this, I have always been cautious and never dared to make a mistake."
After defending himself, Heshen then flicked his horse-hoof sleeves and knelt down with a thud, acting like a dog or a horse, his head touching the ground, and said, "Your Majesty, I will tell you this method now, but you must not be angry after I finish speaking?"
The old dog Qianlong couldn't help but feel a little curious.
This dog servant Heshen had always been a cunning and treacherous figure in front of him, acting foolishly. Now that he was suddenly acting so solemnly, the old dog Qianlong felt unaccustomed to it.
After pondering for a moment, the old dog Qianlong said, "Fine, I have already said I pardon you, so just say it."
Heshen responded with a "yes" again, then dutifully kowtowed once more before saying, "Your humble servant believes that since our Great Qing has precedents for purchasing official positions, we might as well open it up further now and sell some official positions like prefect."
As Heshen finished speaking, the old dog Qianlong's slightly closed eyes suddenly opened, and he glared at Heshen, saying, "Heshen, how dare you! Do you know what you are saying?"
Heshen again dutifully bowed to the old dog Qianlong, and then replied, "Replying to Your Majesty, your humble servant knows what he is saying, and your humble servant also knows what it implies."
"But, Your Majesty, who holds those prefectures and counties now? Although nominally they are still the territories of our Great Qing, the prefects and magistrates of those prefectures and counties no longer obey the orders of our Great Qing court. To our Great Qing, they are like a chicken's rib—tasteless to eat, but a pity to discard."
"Rather than this, we might as well sell off these prefectures and counties. Firstly, it can alleviate the shortage in the national treasury. Secondly, it can also make the buyers of official positions and the occupying officials of those prefectures and counties fight each other, while our Great Qing court can sit back and reap the benefits."
The old dog Qianlong secretly pondered for a moment and then, after a cold snort, continued to ask, "Get up. Now tell me, what was the method you mentioned earlier for continuously obtaining money?"
Heshen first thanked him for his grace, then got up from the ground and said with a fawning smile, "Replying to Your Majesty, the method your humble servant spoke of for continuously obtaining money lies in smoke."
The old dog Qianlong was startled and asked, "Smoke?"
Heshen nodded and said solemnly, "Your Majesty is wise, what your humble servant speaks of is precisely smoke."
"Smoke is indeed a harmful substance, yet the dignitaries and nobles of our Great Qing court, knowing that this substance is harmful to the body, still flock to it. They consume a large amount of smoke every year, and it is the same in the civilian population of our Great Qing."
"Your humble servant believes that since the consumption of this substance is considerable, why not make it a state-run monopoly? In this way, the money will flow in continuously."
The smoke that Heshen and Zhongtang spoke of was not the same as the smoke that triggered that war.
The smoke Heshen spoke of was tobacco.
This thing called tobacco had actually spread to the Central Plains since the Ming Dynasty. However, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty had always strived to ban it, punishing anyone who dared to grow or smoke it.
The emperors of our Great Qing, on the other hand, never cared about this matter, or rather, only cared superficially.
After all, tobacco had a large consumption, and correspondingly, the commercial tax would be higher. Therefore, even knowing that smoking tobacco was very harmful to the body, the emperors of our Great Qing still turned a blind eye to tobacco.
After all, the common people were not their own people, but their own slaves. Who would care about the lives of slaves?
Thinking of this, the old dog Qianlong simply hummed and said, "Fine, this matter will be handled according to your wishes."
Heshen and Zhongtang responded with a "yes" again. Seeing that the old dog Qianlong had lost interest in talking, they tentatively asked, "Does Your Majesty have any other instructions? If not, shall your humble servant go and arrange matters regarding tobacco?"
The old dog Qianlong did not pay attention to Heshen but closed his eyes and pondered silently, then suddenly asked, "Heshen, do you think the Solon Camp and the Mongolian Eight Banners can suppress the rebel Zhu?"
Being asked this by the old dog Qianlong, Heshen was momentarily stunned and didn't know how to answer.
Did the Solon Camp soldiers have combat effectiveness? Yes, after all, they were fierce individuals who could cross the Himalayas and defeat the Gurkhas. If even the Solon Camp soldiers were not considered to have combat effectiveness, then perhaps no army in the world would have combat effectiveness.
Did the Mongolian Eight Banners have combat effectiveness? Only God knew.
Anyway, Heshen and Zhongtang were not very confident.
If the old dog Qianlong simply ordered the Solon Camp to send troops to quell the rebel Zhu, Heshen thought it was very possible, as the Solon Camp soldiers were indeed fierce. They neither valued others' lives nor their own.
However, adding the Mongolian Eight Banners to this made it really difficult to say.
Strictly speaking, the most capable troops from Mongolia should be the Mongolian cavalry led by Man Gui during the Chongzhen era. As for others like Lindan Khan, the various Khorchin tribes, or the later Mongolian Eight Banners, their combat effectiveness?
It was truly difficult to describe.
But Heshen couldn't directly say that the matter was unreliable, because the decision to send the Solon Camp and the Mongolian Eight Banners together to suppress the rebel Zhu was personally made by the old dog Qianlong. If Zhongtang said that the Mongolian Eight Banners were no longer useful, wouldn't that be slapping the old dog Qianlong's face?
Slapping the old dog Qianlong's face was something that the fool Ji Yun, Ji Xiaolan, might do, but how could Heshen and Zhongtang, who were called the Second Emperor, do such a foolish thing and incur the displeasure of the old dog Qianlong?
After pondering for a moment, Heshen bowed and said with a fawning smile, "Your humble servant believes that with the bravery of the Solon Camp, suppressing the rebel Zhu will surely be as easy as lifting a hand."
The old dog Qianlong then hummed and ordered, "Alright, I am tired. You may withdraw."
...
Just as the old dog Qianlong and Heshen were discussing the combat effectiveness of the Solon Camp, Zhu Jinsong, the arch-rebel leader, was also discussing the Solon Camp and the Mongolian Eight Banners with his subordinates.
This time, Ke Zhiming, the intelligence chief, had made up his mind not to speak first.
Last time, it was Ke Zhiming who confidently declared how fierce the Zhili Eight Banners and the Zhili Green Standard Army were, and repeatedly reminded the leaders at Menglianggu to be careful in their response.
And what was the result?
The result was that as soon as they engaged in battle, the Zhili Green Standard Army became a replica of the Shandong Green Standard Army. Their business of stripping equipment and then kneeling with their heads in their hands to surrender was quite proficient.
As for the Zhili Eight Banners, they were not bad. Both the Eight Banners armored cavalry and the Eight Banners infantry performed commendably. Even their business of stripping equipment and surrendering was not very proficient.
However, the ferocity of the Eight Banners camp was of no consequence.
First, they were led around like dogs by Zhu Jinsong, and then they were incapacitated by a few laborers using broad beans. The suffocating stench was something Ke Zhiming still remembered vividly.
Of course, it would not be so easy for Zhu Jinsong to replicate his previous success.
After all, the old dog Qianlong still had the Sticky Rod Department. Although they did not have a very clear understanding of the intelligence from Menglianggu, they could still inquire about the general situation.
Especially the situation where Agui finally took the initiative to let those Green Standard soldiers escape, and then, with only twenty thousand armored Eight Banners and a few thousand laborers remaining, the entire army was wiped out. Such a situation would easily lead people to suspect that there was something wrong with those laborers.
Therefore, the old dog Qianlong should not mobilize Han civilian laborers again this time.
ps: The fourth update is here. I have updated fourteen thousand words today. Please give me your votes! Monthly votes! Recommendation votes! Hand them all over to me!